“Contact your regular customers and get parts flowing again starting tomorrow. You can continue to help Hanna at the races and keep those track contacts flowing, because everything gets back to Coletta.”
Hanna, oddly felt he had been left out and asked, “Do you want me to join their gang?”
“Absolutely not,” Pisano answered. “They‘d sniff you out in a minute, and you’d be dead in a week. I haven’t got a plan for you right now, except for you to stick to your normal routine. Keep working at the garage, going to school, racing on the weekends, buying parts from Langer, and whoever else you buy parts from. I’m still working on your role. Don’t worry your role will happen.”
Pisano concluded the meeting by saying, “I’ve got to get to another meeting now.”
“How do we contact you if we need to?” Langer asked.
Pisano replied “The same number. Nobody picks up that line except me or a member of my team. Any other questions?”
Langer and Hanna shook their heads.
Pisano got up from the table. He said hello to the waitress on the way out.
It seemed he knew her.
Hanna and Langer each took a deep breath as they looked at each other. Langer said, “I’ll contact you in a few days about the carb manifold you need.”
Hanna looked down, trying to hide the fact that he felt betrayed by Ed. He had no knowledge of Ed’s crime involvement and was waiting for the courtesy of an explanation from his friend. He was now in the servitude of the NOPD with his life at stake. Wade looked up acknowledging Ed with a short nod as they both left the table.
Two weeks passed, and a second meeting with Pisano was scheduled at a different restaurant on a Saturday afternoon. Both Hanna and Langer were there on time. Pisano seemed rushed but wanted to cover a couple of things quickly before he skirted to another meeting.
He started with, “I see both of you are following my instructions.” Turning to Hanna, he said, “I see you won a trophy at the track last weekend.” Turning to Langer, he said, “I see the parts are flowing again. Have you had any problems with your regular contacts in the gang or gotten any questions which seem unusual?”
Langer replied, “Things went back to just like they were before.”
Pisano replied, “Good.” He paused before continuing, “You can’t ever repeat any of the information I’m about to give you. If any information I’m going to tell you gets back to the syndicate you’ll be in real danger. Is that understood?”
Both Langer and Hanna responded at once. “I understand.”
“We have pretty good indication that the Coletta mob now totals around 75 members and is divided into operational divisions. Each division has several isolated groups reporting to separate bosses within the division. As the crime organization has grown, it has become more difficult for them to coordinate the internal activities between separate divisions. When parts are exchanged between divisions, there is a double accounting that takes place to keep track of the divisional parts and revenue. With more and larger orders being placed, parts are being exchanged and travelling between too many different hands within the organization. This is creating inefficiency and tension. We want to exploit this inefficiency. By exploiting the inefficiency we will cause more inventory problems and distrust among members.” Pointing to Langer Pisano continued, “I assume you know the head of your organization?”
“I’m not sure I do.”
“T.J. Coletta.”
“I’ve heard the name T.J. before, but it wasn’t used in connection with him being the head of the organization.”
Pisano turned to Hanna, “Have you heard the name before?”
“No.”
Pisano continued, still pointing to Hanna, “I still don’t have your undercover area defined, but I want you to keep winning at the track.”
Turning back to Langer Pisano asked, “What if you went to your Coletta people and said you heard someone wanted to buy, say, five engine assemblies. How would they respond?”
“I think that would be good.”
Pisano said, “Make it three engines so it doesn’t raise suspicions.” He looked at Langer to emphasize the next point, “But I don’t want you in the deal. You just heard the comment. It was not directly from one of your customers. You just heard it in passing in a conversation between your customer and a person you didn’t know. I don’t want you asking for any part of the deal financially. You’re just passing along information like a good soldier.”
“Find out if they want you to get more information on the interested party. That’s all I want you to do. Play dumb about all of the details. If they bite, we may want to set up a meeting with a guy from our group. I want to know if there are any questions or suspicions raised when you tell them. Remember, you just heard this from a guy when you were selling a part. You know nothing else.”
Langer said he understood. “I’ll just mention it passing the next time I pick up parts from them.”
Pisano was looking at his watch and getting ready to end the meeting when Langer asked, “You said the head of the gang is T.J. Coletta?”
“That’s right.”
“I now remember where I heard the name, T.J. I now think it might be T.J. Coletta. Does T.J. have a wife named Linda?”
“Yes, that’s correct”.
Langer continued, “My sister has a school friend Sara and Sara has a friend who is a beautician that does Linda’s hair every week. When the girls were talking, they mentioned that Linda was the wife of a mob boss out at the lakefront.”
Pisano replied, “That’s good. Let me think about the connection for a while.” Turning to Hanna, Pisano said, “That may be how you get into the organization, but I need to think about it.” With that, Pisano got up, and the meeting ended.
14
As Pisano left the meeting Wade looked Ed right in the eye.
“I didn’t appreciate you bringing up the connection with Coletta’s wife. That now brings me right into the picture.”
Ed thought about the connection Wade was making, “I thought I was doing you a favor. How dangerous can hanging out at a beauty salon be? Every day my ass is hanging out. Other than racing you’ve not been given any real assignment here.”
Wade replied in frustration and anger, “As I recall you were the one that got me into this crap in the first place.” Wade turned and headed for the door before Ed could reply.
Pisano indicated it would probably be two weeks before they would meet again. That was enough time for Wade to take a few days off and think. He was caught up on school work and had enough time to get back to the swamp and clear his head. He was upset with Ed and knew that he couldn’t let anger get in the way of them on this assignment. Wade thought it was time to regain some spiritual connection for what he might experience as his undercover assignment began to take shape. Wade had a swamp ritual in mind. If he was about to enter the den of the mob boss he’d better consult with another beast he knew only as “Master”.
The backyard of Wade’s family camp sixty miles southwest of New Orleans is surrounded on three sides by primordial swamp. Wade loved nature and he has miles upon square mile to experience its wonders and mystery. He spent most of his youthful days hunting, fishing and exploring this swamp.
Wade was glad to be headed back to the swamp. He wasn’t sure what was drawing him. He just had the feeling he needed special quiet time in the domain he understood and took comfort in as a child.
Wade was familiar with spiritual rituals practiced by a few local residents who had lived in the area for many generations. During long summer days in the swamp Wade sometimes performed his own rituals.
One of his favorite fishing spots was a pond that was well hidden and difficult to reach behind a tall stand of Cyprus trees several miles into the swamp. Wade discovered the pond while exploring several years ago. He called his special place, “Lost Lagoon”.